Affinity Photo

[Truman Prevatt]

Capture One is nice, but a little but the workflow is a little two "anal" for the quick and dirty editing of a few images. I stumbled onto Affinity Photo and it seems to be reasonably adequate for editing a few images. The price is also right.

My questions:

1. has anyone used it - and if so what is the assessment.

2. is there any issues with XTrans processing

3. general comments.

 

[afm]

I used the trial and could not get on with it and its 'Persona's. I found it over complicated for what it offered even though the price was right as you say. After that I settled with ACDsee which I now like as a follow on from C1 or just for jpeg editing.

 

[MrSee]

I use Affinity Photo, but I shoot jpeg only. It's got everything I need.

 

[Leined]

Capture One is nice, but a little but the workflow is a little two "anal" for the quick and dirty editing of a few images. I stumbled onto Affinity Photo and it seems to be reasonably adequate for editing a few images. The price is also right.

My questions:

1. has anyone used it - and if so what is the assessment.
2. is there any issues with XTrans processing
3. general comments.

I use Affinity Photo alongside Capture One, and in terms of functionality, it's an excellent Photoshop-alternative. In terms, of price-to-value, it's a no-brainer. It was 50% a few months ago, but even at full-price, I'd still buy it no-question. They have been updating their applications for a while now without asking their users to pay for the newest version.

I haven't used Affinity Photo extensively as a standalone editor, so I can't speak to its ability to demosaic RAF-files, but I do use it to perform actions (HDR, Panorama, complex heal/clones, etc.)that C1 doesn't. In that regard, it works quite well.

For quick and dirty editing though, I'd still prefer Capture One (even just Capture Express) simply for the UI.

 

[toktik]

I think it works fine with JPEG and TIFF. I don’t like using it with Fujifilm raw files. I mainly use it for channel swapping red and blue for infrared images.

 

[Inukim]

Capture One is nice, but a little but the workflow is a little two "anal" for the quick and dirty editing of a few images. I stumbled onto Affinity Photo and it seems to be reasonably adequate for editing a few images. The price is also right.

My questions:

1. has anyone used it - and if so what is the assessment.

2. is there any issues with XTrans processing

3. general comments.

It's a good alternative to Photoshop, and does not have the workflow of Lightroom or Capture One. You wont get any special Xtrans processing algorithm so images will most likely look the same if processed with photoshop without the "enhanced detail" function. In my opinion there are some annoyances. The windows version does not properly utilize the gpu, so it is quite slow sometimes. I had never had this issue with photoshop on the same computer. Film simulation or LUT can only be applied after the raw file has been converted to JPEG, unless I am missing something. And Affinity does not actually have film simulation presets out of the box. You need to add them manually. I have heard that Affinity is a "destructive" type of editing, which I guess means it alters the original file. It is missing other featured of photoshop but after you get used to its limitations, it works, and I use it because I don't want to pay the subscription price of Adobe products.

 

[maltmoose]

I think capture one is just hands down a better raw converter than affinity. Faster, more features, film sims, demosacing, highlight, shadows better etc.

I do still use affinity from time to time but on tiff files from capture one. works well and affinity has a great set of tools but as a raw converter im not a huge fan but as an image editor it is great.

Maybe im missing something so if someone can list the steps they take to get a raf file to the same place as a capture one image im all ears.

 

[a_c_skinner]

Yes. I fancy Capture One is a better bet if you are trying to lift shadows a lot, the colours go a bit wonky on Affinity for big corrections (not that I ever get exposure so wrong!). Beyond that it works very well with lots of on line tutorials by the publishers on YouTube.

 

[Truman Prevatt]

Thanks guys. So it sounds like for a quick/dirty workflow - Iridient Developer followed by Affinity to edit the developed Tiff might be the way to go. Both are Mac centric which works for me. For large projects where the Sessions or even Catalog interface is beneficial then C1 might be the answer.

One of the issues I have with C1 is they tend to be slow in updating their code for OSX updates although Apple releases preliminary releases of the new OS in plenty of time. For example Iridient already supports the new Apple processor as does Affinity. Adobe is following suite. So does Microsoft Office and heavy lifting mathematics S/W Mathematica. Matlab is release that update in December.

But C1 - they won't say and they were late to the party on the last update.

 

[TonyGN10]

Thanks guys. So it sounds like for a quick/dirty workflow - Iridient Developer followed by Affinity to edit the developed Tiff might be the way to go. Both are Mac centric which works for me. For large projects where the Sessions or even Catalog interface is beneficial then C1 might be the answer.

One of the issues I have with C1 is they tend to be slow in updating their code for OSX updates although Apple releases preliminary releases of the new OS in plenty of time. For example Iridient already supports the new Apple processor as does Affinity. Adobe is following suite. So does Microsoft Office and heavy lifting mathematics S/W Mathematica. Matlab is release that update in December.

But C1 - they won't say and they were late to the party on the last update.

IMO Affinity is a very good Photoshop replacement but it's not first and foremost a raw developer. I use it alongside C1.

Yes C1 are always a bit coy with news about new versions, but David Grover from C1 dropped a very big hint this week that there is likely to be a major announcement from C1 before the next scheduled Quick Live online editing session on 26 November - I assume that will be regarding their C1 21 version, which will "officially" also be compatible with Big Sur.

However, I gather from the Mac Talk board that the current version of C1 is working OK with Big Sur, with some members reporting that it's working "definitely faster" .

In general though, other than neophile urges, I don't why people are so keen to upgrade their OS as soon as possible - personally if your current OS version is working fine, what's the big rush? In fact, I think there are good arguments to wait a little while.

 

[Truman Prevatt]

Thanks guys. So it sounds like for a quick/dirty workflow - Iridient Developer followed by Affinity to edit the developed Tiff might be the way to go. Both are Mac centric which works for me. For large projects where the Sessions or even Catalog interface is beneficial then C1 might be the answer.

One of the issues I have with C1 is they tend to be slow in updating their code for OSX updates although Apple releases preliminary releases of the new OS in plenty of time. For example Iridient already supports the new Apple processor as does Affinity. Adobe is following suite. So does Microsoft Office and heavy lifting mathematics S/W Mathematica. Matlab is release that update in December.

But C1 - they won't say and they were late to the party on the last update.

IMO Affinity is a very good Photoshop replacement but it's not first and foremost a raw developer. I use it alongside C1.

Yes C1 are always a bit coy with news about new versions, but David Grover from C1 dropped a very big hint this week that there is likely to be a major announcement from C1 before the next scheduled Quick Live online editing session on 26 November - I assume that will be regarding their C1 21 version, which will "officially" also be compatible with Big Sur.

However, I gather from the Mac Talk board that the current version of C1 is working OK with Big Sur, with some members reporting that it's working "definitely faster" .

In general though, other than neophile urges, I don't why people are so keen to upgrade their OS as soon as possible - personally if your current OS version is working fine, what's the big rush? In fact, I think there are good arguments to wait a little while.

OS updates are always a touchy question. When I was with FCI (Fairchild Camera and Instrument) as Director of Internal Research and Development - along with a few other hats. - We had a tremendous number of installed systems world wide. Several of our divisions, Telemetry Systems, Imaging Systems, Electronic Warfare Systems, and Special Systems all had large field support operations. In the 1980's corporate wide we had close to 1000 people in plant and in the field in field support.

Our systems had multiple different computers, from Digital Equipment Corp (DEC ) - no longer around to Sun Microsystems (no longer around) to IBM to HP (the real HP not what is left of it). We even had one system running on a Cray super computer. So the tracking and upgrading and maintaining our S/W to support these systems was a huge effort - and a thankless task. The corporate manager of Field Support held a PhD in computer science from NYU and had his hands full. I remember several meetings where he pretty much said something like this. Every computer vendor we have works with use. Many of them have their field support people in our spaces. They keep us informed to the point of suppling pre release code for their updates. There are many reasons for updates - one of the most compelling is performance and security. This was in the days before the internet but not before world wide networking with many of our users.

He went on to say something like if there are surprises after an update - it is our fault. Not to update is not an option. So our corporate policy was as soon as an update hit - our field support operations started the process of updating the systems. That was mostly because we had made whatever mods necessary to fix any breakage in our code from the update. Often such breakage is actually the vendor's fault because they didn't adhere to proper development practices up front.

Apple is pretty good with its upgrades. It works with vendors long before the upgrade hits the street. Since MOS is based on POSIX compliant Unix - more of the impact is at the UI level - not down in the guts. Of course that doesn't mean programs won't crash. Some of the major changes other than UI have been related to computer security - and as the threat increases and sitting on the Internet without paying attention is pretty much equivalent to unprotected sex it is it becomes important to keep you first line of defense (the OS) updated.

Apple also has experience with chip changes as it transitioned from the Motorola Power PC chip after Motorola pi**ed away it resources on the failed Iridium development and could not support the IBM/Apple/Motorola partnership so when Jobs came back from Apple to save them - he transitioned to the Intel X86 and the OS to BSD Unix which was what his NeXT computer was based on.

The Internet squawk box has C1 working fine in Big Sur on the DAM and editing with issues with the tethering subsystem. I could easily see that because of communications protocols resulting from security concerns. So most likely nothing to worry with. We will see.

But while I'm not going to upgrade right now - the servers are problem very busy I will within the next couple weeks.

 

[jackkurtz]

I use Affinity instead of Photoshop for JPEGs. I don’t think it’s raw converter is as good as either C1 or Adobe.



The price is right and on my older MacBook Pro it’s faster than Photoshop.

--

A few of my photos:

http://www.jackkurtzphotography.com

 

[Ysarex]

Affinity is a very good raster image editor and best deal available again as a raster RGB editor. For raw file processing I consider it simply unusable. Great software and great price just use something else to handle raw files.

1. Affinity is forced destructive in a raw workflow. Any work you do to process a raw file is just dumped when you develop the raw file to an RGB image. If you decide to return to any step in the raw processing you have to start from scratch and do everything over. That for me is a show stopper.

2. I consider an HSL tool when processing raw files essential. Affinity has none, another show stopper.

3. Camera input profiles? Maybe even just an option to use your own, another show stopper.

4. Most decent raw converters will at least attempt highlight reconstruction if one channel is slightly clipped, but not Affinity, not even a poor attempt.

I think that's enough: great RGB image editor -- keep your raw files away from it.

 

[Kiwi Shutterbug]

Check out Exposure X6 30-day trial, over 300 presets incl Fujifilm sim and fast with Fuji raw or jpgs.

 

[Truman Prevatt]

Thanks guys. So it sounds like for a quick/dirty workflow - Iridient Developer followed by Affinity to edit the developed Tiff might be the way to go. Both are Mac centric which works for me. For large projects where the Sessions or even Catalog interface is beneficial then C1 might be the answer.

One of the issues I have with C1 is they tend to be slow in updating their code for OSX updates although Apple releases preliminary releases of the new OS in plenty of time. For example Iridient already supports the new Apple processor as does Affinity. Adobe is following suite. So does Microsoft Office and heavy lifting mathematics S/W Mathematica. Matlab is release that update in December.

But C1 - they won't say and they were late to the party on the last update.

However, I gather from the Mac Talk board that the current version of C1 is working OK with Big Sur, with some members reporting that it's working "definitely faster" .

I expect it is working fine and I have heard the DAM and editing portion are working fine but there are issues tethered shooting. That's find since I don't use that feature. On the other hand I just downloaded and installed on my current Mac the latest Iridient Developer which is not only compatible but is the "universal binary" which runs the M1 chip natively and the X86 natively. It doesn't seem to be that difficult and it should not be if the code was designed correctly up front.

 

[TonyGN10]

Thanks guys. So it sounds like for a quick/dirty workflow - Iridient Developer followed by Affinity to edit the developed Tiff might be the way to go. Both are Mac centric which works for me. For large projects where the Sessions or even Catalog interface is beneficial then C1 might be the answer.

One of the issues I have with C1 is they tend to be slow in updating their code for OSX updates although Apple releases preliminary releases of the new OS in plenty of time. For example Iridient already supports the new Apple processor as does Affinity. Adobe is following suite. So does Microsoft Office and heavy lifting mathematics S/W Mathematica. Matlab is release that update in December.

But C1 - they won't say and they were late to the party on the last update.

However, I gather from the Mac Talk board that the current version of C1 is working OK with Big Sur, with some members reporting that it's working "definitely faster" .

I expect it is working fine and I have heard the DAM and editing portion are working fine but there are issues tethered shooting. That's find since I don't use that feature. On the other hand I just downloaded and installed on my current Mac the latest Iridient Developer which is not only compatible but is the "universal binary" which runs the M1 chip natively and the X86 natively. It doesn't seem to be that difficult and it should not be if the code was designed correctly up front.

Thanks. There's a C1 21 preview event at 5pm GMT on C1's YouTube channel next Tuesday 17 November - I guess we'll get the details of the new version then.

 

[Tim van der Leeuw]

Check out Exposure X6 30-day trial, over 300 presets incl Fujifilm sim and fast with Fuji raw or jpgs.

Thanks I might try that... is it multi-platform?

 

[Tim van der Leeuw]

Since you are using a Mac, did you try RAW Power?

It uses the MacOS built-in RAW converter, that used to also power Aperture. It's available via the Apple Appstore on MacOS.

It's a capable RAW processor light on "workflow": select a folder and browse the folder tree, and the images.

You can export to JPEG, or to TIFF for further editing in any other photo-editor.

 

[toktik]

Capture One is nice, but a little but the workflow is a little two "anal" for the quick and dirty editing of a few images. I stumbled onto Affinity Photo and it seems to be reasonably adequate for editing a few images. The price is also right.

My questions:

1. has anyone used it - and if so what is the assessment.

2. is there any issues with XTrans processing

3. general comments.

I like most aspects of Capture One, expect for having to import images into either a session or catalog. I am starting to learn darktable, and it seems to offer a lot. I especially like that I can use it to open specific files without needing to import them first. I have several programs for developing/editing photographs:

• Capture One 20 (Windows 10)
• SilkyPix Pro 10 (Windows 10)
• Affinity Photo (Windows 10)
• Luminar 3 and 4 (Windows 10)
• darktable (Pop!_OS Linux)
• GIMP (Pop!_OS Linux)

Each solution has strengths and weaknesses, but if I can get the quality I want using darktable and GIMP, I might eventually move to using Linux for most of my photo-related work.

 

[Tim van der Leeuw]

Indeed I have also started to look at DarkTable. Another option that should be very good for Fuji cameras is RawTherapee.